Reasonable Service

Romans 12:1 ends with a curious phrase. Paul is urging his Roman readers to present themselves to God as living sacrifices, abandoning all claims to fulfill their own desires because of their gratitude for what God has done in choosing, calling, and justifying them. Making such a sacrifice involves obedience in the flesh, striving after holiness, or Christlikeness, to the point of pleasing God. Such sacrifice, Paul adds, is the Romans’ “reasonable service.” What does he mean?

The Greek wording of this text makes it difficult to answer that question. Dr. James M. Boice explains the problem, noting that the Greek word translated as “reasonable” in The New King James Version is logikos, which can mean “reasonable,” “rational,” or “spiritual,” while the word translated as “service” in the NKJV is latreia, which can mean “service,” “worship,” or even “duties.” Therefore, the phrase can be translated as “reasonable service” or “spiritual worship,” which is exactly how The New International Version renders it. But Boice prefers the first option, “reasonable service,” which indicates that self-sacrifice for God is a reasonable or rational thing to do. He prefers this translation largely because of the context—the next verse of Romans has to do with me renewal of the believer’s mind. “Paul really is talking about something reasonable, saying that the living sacrifice that he is urging upon us here is logical,” Boice writes.

The problem, of course, is that sin has blinded us to what is truly reasonable and rational, and even after our conversions, our sinful natures can blind us to the truth. “It is reasonable to love God and serve Him in return,” Boice writes. “But we are not as rational as that. . . If you and I were as rational as we think we are and sometimes claim to be, we would not need any encouragement to offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices because it would be the most reasonable thing in the world for us to do it.” Obviously, Paul is calling the Romans to make this sacrifice and pointing out just how rational it is because they need the encouragement of which Boice writes. What could be more rational than to give our all in service to the God who gave His only Son for us, who continues to work in our lives to sanctify us, and who is utterly worthy of our very best? Simply put, serving God makes sense, but rebellion against Him is irrational foolishness.